Changing Shapes
by punkrockflowerhair
Summary: For three years, Katey Miller did her best to forget what she left behind in Cuba. Now, even though she's been forced to return, she's still intent on forever putting the past behind her and changing. Little does she know that Javier has already changed.
1. Changes in Motion

**Prologue-Changes in Motion:**

Katey looked up from her suitcase for a moment, and into the mirror. In almost three years, she'd hardly changed. She sighed. It wasn't just her physical appearance either. Her opinions, her feelings, her perspectives were all the same. _It's funny_, she thought, _how you can change so much so quickly, and then not change at all for so long_. She was in college now, it was a prestigious one too-she'd fulfilled her former dream of going to Radcliffe! College was supposed to be a time to find yourself, to change yourself! But she hadn't changed. At least not as much as she'd thought she would. Not as much as she had that year, there.

She silently reprimanded herself. She had said she wasn't going to dwell on the past. She'd told herself again and again that there was nothing she could do, that it was over. She'd told herself to forget about everything there, she even stopped herself from saying any specifics. But they kept floating around in her mind. Cuba. Javier. She didn't want to remember. But she couldn't escape it.

And now-I'm going back? She thought. How am I supposed to deal with it? Maybe I can just stay in the Oceana the whole time, or maybe The Palace if I really have to get out. There was no way he would be there. No way she would end up remembering everything in those places.

She hadn't meant to go back-ever. She'd gotten so upset when she'd returned to the States that after half a year of utter misery and trying to cover it up, her sister, Susie, finally decided that she'd had enough. Susie had been the one to bring her to the senses, the same Susie that Katey had always seen as silly and carefree. The same Susie that was now making Katey go back. Katey had wildly protested. "I can't do this! I've gotten over that stage of my life Susie. You know how hard it was, you can't do this to me now! My life has just started getting better!" She'd continued on in a similar strain.

But Susie would have none of it. "Katey just do this. You know this meeting is really important to Daddy. You know Mom would have a fit if you didn't go. We've missed you while you've been off at college-Mom especially. They want to spend summer vacation with you. It just happens to have to be in Cuba. You know Mom will drag you down there by force if you don't go."

This passed back and forth. In the end, Susie's guilt tripping had been successful-and true. Their parents pushed for Katey to go to Cuba too, stressing how thrilled they would be to finally spend time with their "grown-up daughter". And so now there was no way Katey could get out of it. She was bound for Cuba.

---Please review! I need opinions since I don't really know if I should continue or not. Thanks!---


	2. Taking Off

**Take-Off**

So it happened that the week after college was over, Katey and the rest of her family was on a plane en route to Cuba. The Millers flew first class, something that Katey took for granted-until she considered what one boy three years ago had thought of wealth and status. Think of him was making her quiet and cheerless. All she really wanted was a good sulk as she'd done last year for so long. She was frustrated with herself, telling her mind to shut up. This was why she shouldn't have agreed to go back! There was no point. She was really just creating huge useless problems for herself. She just wanted to stop remembering everything and read in silence. However, since boarding the plane, her mother, Jeannie, had done nothing but eagerly interrogate Katey with question after question. "How was your school year, sweetheart?"

"Fine Mom."

"Any special someone in your life from college?" Jeannie bounced right back from her daughter's terse response with a wink.

"No Mom."

"Really? Katey...you should have a boyfriend by now! Look at Susie! You're almost out of college. What'll you do then? You need to get a boyfriend Katey," Jeannie scolded.

"Fine Mom, there was this one guy from school..."

"Why didn't you say so? What's he like? What's his name?" Jeannie fired back with relieved questions.

Katey sighed, "Scott."

It continued similarly as Katey intermittently gave single word answers, sulked, and immersed herself in a political book, as far from romance and Cuba as she could get, attempting to forget where this plane was headed. She felt somewhat guilty with the way she was talking to her Mom. But she wasn't really out and out lying. She did have a boyfriend named Scott. Well, not so much a boyfriend as a boy-space-friend. He'd been in her Ancient Lit class. They'd gone on a few dates and he was really a nice and funny guy. But they hadn't really been going steady. When they left school for the summer they didn't really say they had any obligations to each other. Now Katey almost wished they had been going steady. That way, she really could go out of her way to avoid seeing...old friends, so to speak. She could easily avoid the temptation, giving herself an excuse to lock herself in the Oceana. Well, she thought, I can still do it.

After really getting tired of her political book and trying to avoid her mother's cross-examination, Katey fell asleep, awakening only around ten minutes before landing. As she caught glimpses of Cuba's exotic landscape her heart nervously beat faster and she turned away, forcefully pushing down the memories making their way into her mind. She was back in Cuba.


	3. Nostalgia

**Nostalgia **

Katey wasn't surprised, when the Millers landed, that Cuba hadn't changed at all. Not because of the news or the politics, but because, as much as she had told herself again and again to stop thinking of Cuba completely, her mind had simply refused to follow her orders. And the hundreds of times that she'd thought back to Cuba and what had happened there, she had been transplanted there. She'd remembered exactly what the landscape was like, what the people were like, how the buildings looked, what the air smelled like. Katey realized as her family drove through the streets of Cuba, just as they had three years ago, that everything about Cuba was permanently engrained in her memory-even though she'd tried so hard to forget it. _This isn't good_, she thought as she took in all this. _I really should've hit my head or something, gotten amnesia_. She didn't want to get her heart broken all over again. It'd just started to mend. If anything happened this time in Cuba, or if she continued to remember everything so vividly, just like she reminisced now, she was going to be crushed again. And she couldn't let herself be.

But she couldn't stop herself. Driving through the exotic, pulsating streets of Cuba like this, bustling with life, reminded her all too much of...of what had happened. _I won't say his name. I won't even think it. _As much as she hated always thinking of this place though, she loved the landscape and the culture. Cuba was like an alternate reality, it made everything back home look dreary and bleak. During her stay in the vibrant country she'd fallen in love with it. She'd even learned Spanish and taken Hispanic Lit at college, telling herself it was in no way because of him. That was probably part of the reason she hadn't been able to completely forget everything about Cuba. She sighed. She silently mused over all this, staring absentmindedly out the window, as the rest of the family happily bantered on, unaware of the mental tumult going on next to them.

Soon enough, the car pulled up at the Oceana Hotel. Katey breathed in sharply as she looked up at her former home. _Here we go_...she thought as she slowly mounted the steps and walked into the luxurious lobby. Just like she had three years ago.


	4. Embittered

**Embittered**

While Katey was struggling to keep from drowning in reluctant nostalgia as she toured the hotel that used to be her home, the man at the center of all her tucked up memories was painting stolen cars on the opposite side of Cuba. Javier's situation had not changed. But at the same time, he was utterly different. He was an embittered man now. He was no longer the boy who had spoken passionately of a now disastrous revolution. He was no longer the teenager who had laughed in the sea and shared a kiss on the beach, caught up in the middle of exhilarating first love.

Though he was no longer the same person, these memories played again and again, looping in his mind. He was not like Katey, who had tried to dump all her memories to heal. He clung onto his reminiscences with everything he had. He, for one, could not afford to let them go. Javier credited these memories as the one thing keeping him sane, with everything going awry in the last three years.

To start, Carlos was gone again. Following the success of the revolution he had gallivanted off to Castro with the other giddy, gleeful revolutionaries. In the midst of the ecstatic energy surrounding that time, Javier hadn't told him to stay. How could he restrain the delight contained in this one unbelievably wonderful incident? He had let his brother go off. Who knew then that this new leader was worse than the old one? Carlos would be lucky if he wasn't dead. Or maybe he'd be better of dead.

"_No se preocupe, pequeño hermano. ¡Estaré detrás pronto!_" Carlos had said not to worry, that he'd be back soon, in that same condescending tone he'd always playfully used. But he had a nasty habit of saying things he didn't mean. But Javier didn't even blame him. _Idiota ingenuo_. _¿Por qué el infierno yo déjelo ir? _he thought. _Naïve idiot. Why the hell did I let him go?_ So now Javier was the sole supporter of Raphael and Mama yet again. Abuelo had died two years ago after a bout with sickness. Javier had torn himself up when he hadn't been able to do anything. He had been horribly ashamed, a month or two after his death, when he had thought for one fleeting moment, that, thankfully, it was one less mouth to feed. He had been shaken that the thought had even been fabricated in his mind. He hated himself for it.

There was one more thing, one more aspect to complete his wholly new persona. Javier didn't dance anymore. "_Niguna hora_," he had casually told his concerned mother. _No time_. She hadn't believed him. He didn't really either.

---So sorry if the translation is crap. I take French so I'm sadly using an online translator. Sorry this took so long...I've really been lacking time and inspiration. Another apology, sorry the chapters are short. For some reason, I just don't/can't/won't write long chapters. I wish I could, but sorry, don't expect too many long ones! The thoughts just aren't there. Thanks so much for all the reviews guys! Keep 'em coming! Oh, and now you can review without signing in. Didn't realize I had that "do not accept anonymous reviews" thing checked. Once more: sorry!---


	5. Changes

**Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes**

Katey gazed in awe at the Oceana as she stepped through the marble threshold, gaping at its luxury, just as she had three years ago, but also at the memories that came flooding back on sight. She quickly did her best to suppress them.

The lobby looked exactly the same. The furniture was in the exact same locations. The ceiling had the same intricate design gilded in gold. The lush and leafy green plants and the vibrant flowers still adorned the grand entrance hall. Yet somehow, the atmosphere was utterly different. There seemed to be an eerie hush lingering over the lobby. Katey felt like something was just off, something wasn't the same as it had been three years ago. She would know, she had spent almost three years remembering everything about this hotel. She recalled the bustle of activity, the cheerful, hectic atmosphere that had enveloped the hotel. Now everything seemed glazed over with a peculiar, restless calm. Also, the Millers were the only Americans in sight, and it seemed that everyone else was eyeing them with suspicion or fear or concern. When Katey took a closer look around the lobby she realized that there were silent, stern, gun toting soldiers in uniform posted at every doorway.

As Katey took all this in, severely shocked that the Cuba she was returning to was so different from the one she had left, the hotel owner, Señor Alonso was scurrying to welcome the Millers. "Señor Miller, Señora, Señoritas!" he cried, trying to grin. "How are you? How we have missed you. We're so glad that you have returned to stay with us!" he said nervously, all in one breath. Katey didn't believe a word he said, as he looked warily at the soldiers surrounding the hotel. She sighed. _It really has changed hasn't it? It's never going to be the same again. What did you expect? You knew what was going on here! God, I wonder how his family…no. Stop. Stop. _

"We're so happy to be back, Señor Alonso. I know we've all missed Cuba so much." Jeannie said earnestly. However, even she looked nervous as her voice wavered; she had noticed the grim guards as well.

Señor Alonso smiled at her effort. He leaned in to the family and whispered discreetly, "Don't worry Señora Miller. We will take good care of you and your girls. But truly, you must be careful now." He straightened up and now said in a louder voice, "If you would follow me now, please, I will take you to your rooms. We're very pleased to give you the same rooms you had last time. It may help you familiarize yourself with Cuba again." He meant these words as a comfort to the family; however, Katey looked aghast. _The same rooms…of course the same rooms. Wonderful. It's all right…I needn't worry. Just because they have memories in them doesn't mean…well it doesn't mean anything at all, does it? No._

With that, the Millers followed Señor Alonso up the grand staircase to the same spacious rooms they had inhabited three years before. Andwhen he opened the door to the suite, Katey gasped as she suddenly saw a familiar face.

-Don't spaz! It's not who you think/hope it is. I wish. Patience! lol )-


End file.
